


Unfinished Business

by Cephy



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Afterlife, Community: kinkfest, Gen, Post-Canon, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-20
Updated: 2008-08-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 02:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cephy/pseuds/Cephy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: "reconciliation - beyond the gates of space and time".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfinished Business

"Took your sweet time about it, princess. What, you had to stop and get a coffee first? I know damned well it wasn't a haircut-- you look like shit."

The voice was familiar-- too familiar, considering he hadn't heard it in-- how many years? Not that it even mattered, because it shouldn't have been even _possible_, since the War was long over, and the owner of that voice had gone with it.

He turned-- blinked through a momentary flash of dizziness as the walls of Garden resolved around him. And leaning against one of those walls-- alone, for once, and even more amazingly in uniform-- was the owner of that familiar voice, with smirk firmly in place but without a gunblade anywhere in sight.

When he reached for his own, out of sheer reflex, he found it missing as well.

"Isn't that sweet-- first time we've seen each other in so long, and you're already thinkin' about killing me."

_None of this is right._ Frowning still, he looked down at himself and saw the SEED candidate uniform he had hated. Unthinkingly, he wished it gone-- and it was, replaced by leather and metal just as the walls of Garden were replaced by open air.

"What--"

"Think about it, princess. It's not that tough."

It was easy to get angry-- familiar taunts, familiar arrogance, and a very familiar urge to hit them both away-- but then dizziness made him pause again. He saw, just so briefly-- blood. Remembered pain. He blinked.

_Oh._

"Yeah, oh."

He glared up into the smirk. "Why are _you_ here?"

"Dunno." Seifer gave a stiffly awkward shrug, shoulders hunching beneath a familiar white coat. "Unfinished business?"

Squall huffed a humourless laugh. "Why would I have--"

"Didn't say it was _yours_, jackass. Hyne, why does it always have to be about _you_?" Seifer pushed off his tree, walked forward-- familiar dangerous stride, making Squall's fingers itch for his still-absent weapon.

"I'm not sayin' I wish I hadn't done it," Seifer said suddenly, challenging, stopping a few paces away. "Not sayin' I wouldn't do it again, or anything like that. Just--" He paused, tilted his chin up and sniffed at the sky. "I regret that things had to happen the way they did."

Squall blinked again-- feeling stunned, feeling _stung_ even as his skin flinched at the long-buried memory of electricity along his nerves. So he just watched as Seifer turned and started to walk away.

"So, yeah, enjoy the rest of your afterlife, I'm sure you'll find your way around."

"Seifer," he managed to say.

Seifer stopped. Squall waited, but no further words would come.

Slowly, the familiar form turned. Looked at him. And, finally, grinned, as the tension in the air dispelled like it had never been.

"Well, come on then, if you're comin'," Seifer said, turning away again and waving vaguely over his shouler. "Man, you really are useless-- you gonna want me to hold your hand, next?" He waited until Squall drew even beside him, while the forest wavered around them and everything blinked, and faded, and died.


End file.
